Skirting dangerously close to ‘National Treasure’ territory, TV ever-present Anthea Turner, has become a successful entrepreneur with the launch of her own skincare brand. You can hear more about it at Elite Business Live in March, but until then, here’s a taster…
Celebrity career pivots are nothing new, but the presenter-to-entrepreneur pipeline sometimes throws up a reinvention that feels unusually rooted in lived experience.
Anthea Turner, ever-present on mainstream television in the 80s, 90s and 2000s, on Blue Peter, Top of the Pops and the National Lottery (to name just some) and still on our screens today, has quietly moved into direct-to-consumer skincare with a brand built on trust, midlife confidence and that most modern of business tools – social media.
The journey did not begin as a masterplan. The popular presenter explains why the transition from television into influencing – and eventually skincare – was not mapped out in advance.
“It wasn’t planned. Life can take its own twists and turns but naturally TV moves on and about ten years ago the climate moved heavily towards social media.”
What followed was experimentation rather than strategy, as she dabbled with digital platforms at a time when mainstream TV careers were abruptly intersecting with online culture.
“I was curious as to what all the fuss was about and became quite interested in how you could create and be a part of your own community. Social media gets a bad rep but it can also be such a force for good.”
She set up an Instagram account, built an audience, and unexpectedly found herself part of a growing ecosystem of influencers promoting products, brands and destinations.
“I set up my own Instagram, not really knowing what I was doing, but before long I had found my people – or rather, they found me!”
Building a community through social media
Turner discovered that her online audience mirrored her TV viewers, only now they were older, navigating work, family and maturing in a way that did not match any outdated stereotypes of midlife. She now regards them as not just followers but a supportive group bound together by shared life experiences.
“My followers are a powerful collection of really great people and we support each other, share ideas and look out for each other.”
That sense of community proved central to what would later become a skincare brand (By Anthea) designed for midlife women. Turner has found a demographic connection between the work she did on-screen and the people now following her on Instagram.
“The people who watched me on Top of the Pops, Blue Peter, then followed me on my journey from the 80’s to the 90’s being on GMTV, the National Lottery and Wish You Were Here, then found me on Instagram.”
Neither were they passive observers. They were a cohort with shared challenges and shared appetites for style, confidence and health.
“We are the first generation of 50-pluses who are not growing old in the same way our parents did – we are more of a blended generation who have the same interests as our younger peers.”
With a ready-made audience listening and watching, the entrepreneurial question shifted from “why” to “why not?”.
“So with a growing and highly engaged following, it made sense to launch my skin care brand using my social media.”
Creating a skincare brand for midlife women
While influencer collaborations were part of Turner’s online life, founding a product business was motivated by a practical gap she experienced first-hand.
“‘By Anthea’ was created because, whilst I found lots of lovely skin care over the years, I couldn’t find something that had all my favourite ingredients in one pot; that was cost effective yet luxurious and does exactly what I needed it to do for my skin. So I created it!”
She framed the brand as a response to unmet needs rather than a vanity project, touching on issues like ageing with confidence, wellness and expertise gained through lived experience.
“Hitting 60 actually really changed things for the better in terms of my work. Many people assume that you should be the twilight of your working era but in my case it ignited my career in a different way and I don’t think I’m alone in that.”
Her own age group – often erroneously overlooked – she regards as anything but over the hill, and says they are, in fact, quite pioneering.
“I am a ‘boomer’ and we are an amazing generation – we are the first people to have picked up a remote control, we were the first to watch a man on the Moon, who holidayed abroad etc. We are trailblazers!”
Skincare was simply the category where that philosophy landed.
“When it came to ‘By Anthea’ I felt there was a gap in the market for honest skin care and I knew I had enough knowledge to put something special together.”
In a sector full of hype, Turner wanted pinpoint clarity and targeting.
“I wanted to provide a series of products that really are ethical, honest, and do what they say on the pot.”
Shaping a brand identity
Entrepreneurs often build products based on a version of themselves and the By Anthea approach was no different
“I am a representative of my generation and I think I know what women my age want.”
Brand positioning was shaped around glam-meets-practicality rather than marketing gloss.
“I love luxury of course, but I’m very practical….so you can’t fob me off with a sparkly jar of cream that looks amazing but doesn’t work.”
Crucially, she also understands margin, multipurpose value and cost-to-use ratios — all concepts familiar to founders but less so to influencers and most TV presenters.
“All our products are multi-purpose, so your money goes a long way and, as a girl from Stoke, that was very important to me,” she says.
A natural shift into entrepreneurship
Turner dismisses the idea that moving into product development was any sort of a dramatic leap into the unknown and likens entrepreneurship to a universal function of business ownership, whether on TV or running a micro-enterprise.
“I didn’t know I’d stepped into it! I felt it was a very natural progression. I’ve always been my own shop window, my own PR and marketing, so these are skills already in our armoury when you have a small business.
“So I don’t think I had many surprises, but when it comes to running By Anthea, I have a business partner and long standing friend who has complementary and opposing skills to me and I think that is very important to us.”
Trust, testing and a hands-on approach
By Anthea positions trust as both the commercial currency and foundation of the brand. Authenticity is vital for a customer base that has grown up as the target audience of the 80s boom in marketing and PR and can distinguish hype from reality.
“Totally. I never underestimate the importance of trust when it comes to business.”
She also takes a very hands-on approach to development, with ethical decision-making at the heart of it.
“We don’t test on animals – we test on Anthea!,” she says.
Learning to grow a product business
Turner learned lessons that many DTC (Direct to Consumer) founders will recognise, including small batch trials, iterative improvement and resisting over-investment.
“I’ve learnt over the years to start small and don’t overcomplicate – to organically grow and let your brand and consumers show you the way.”
She got a sense early on that her instincts were right.
“We initially made just 100 pots as a trial to see if we were on to something. We sold out in a matter of days and realised that we had product that other people loved as much as we did.”
Those modern enablers of entrepreneurship, Etsy and Instagram also helped by removing traditional barriers to entry and allowing gradual scaling.
“So now we don’t need to run before we can walk and can take our time to develop the business organically.”
What’s in a name?
Selling your own product, emblazoned with your own name, carries emotional baggage and risk that does not apply when selling another brand, but it does bring greater emotional reward when it works.
“It felt strange at first to promote something with my name on the pot. Of all the things I’ve ever been part of, this felt like my baby and was a tough one to get my head around.”
Today, the By Anthea brand integrates content, commerce and celebrity under one umbrella.
“I sit in the middle of my own venn diagram and that’s why it works,” says the founder.
You can hear more from Anthea as she talks about her journey into business leadership, in a fireside chat with our very own Oli Barrett on the first day of Elite Business Live at 3.30pm
By Anthea products are available to purchase at: Antheaturner.com/shop
